Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 18. (Budapest, 1999)
Györgyi FAJCSÁK: The hun soul's wanderings. A pair of Chinese burial jars from the 13th century
(Tianwen), making the character of Kunlun as a passage to heaven from earth clearer." The Book of Seas and Mountains (Shanhaijing) of the Warring States (5th3rd c. B. C.) mentioned Kunlun mountain as the lower capital of Tiandi, where the tiger-shaped, nine-clawed Luwu reigned. His officials are animal shaped beings who eat human figures and animals. Chapters 6 to 18 in the Shanhaijing are early Han additions and in these chapters many legends concerning Mt. Kunlun are recounted. According to this source, when we go to the west of Mt. Kunlun we arrive at a mountain named Jade Mountain where the Queen Mother of the West (Xiwangmu) resides in her palace. The goddess's appearance is like a human figure with leopard's nails and tiger's teeth. She is responsible for order in heaven. A new belief took shape during the Han dynasty, which stated that sacred mountains were an intermediary realm through which man would reach heaven, the place where many divine creatures and immortals resided. By the end of the Han dynasty mention of Mt. Kunlun became an accepted element in speculative cosmological writings, and as a cosmic imaginary mountain it gained considerable importance in popular religion. However, it was never listed as an imperial sacred mountain or placed in the orthodox state religious system. Mt. Kunlun was to fulfil individuals' wishes, that is to give assurance for the safe ascent of the souls of the deceased to heaven and to provide prosperity for individual families and their descendants through the power of Queen Mother of the West, who resided on top of the mountain. After the decline of the Han dynasty in the Six Dynasties period (4th —6th c. A. D.) a new form of mountains cult took shape. Sacred mountains were not only intermediary realms where immortals resided but they were also logical places where individuals should seek immortality. Following late Han Daoist ideas there were individual efforts to seek immortality in the mountains. The Six Dynasties period was the time when this new phenomenon from a larger cultural, and historical point of view - indicated the expansion of the civilized Chinese world into the mountain wilderness. Painters and poets wandered into the mountains seeking a mystical environment suitable for hermits. Great mountains were represented as ideal or mystical places for wanderers seeking a transcendental experience. The mountains were not only worshipped or regarded as the source of inspiration, but were also known as suitable places for recluses. There were two basic forms of eremitism in China. One was Confucian eremitism, in which one takes refuge in the mountains to escape from society, rule by foreign invaders, or corrupt governments. The other is Daoistic eremitism, the adherents of which were viewed as seeking to spiritual freedom in the mountains away from the restraining social order. During the Tang dynasty (618-907) mountains were seen as places of residence for hermits and thus became one of the popular themes in Chinese painting, but depiction of the retiring life in the mountains was also fashionable. A particular person's dwelling on a particular mountain was a very popular subject of poems and paintings. In this context poems and paintings depicting life in the mountains in this period were generally called mountain dwellings (shanju). The Song dynasty (960-1279) is generally characterized as the period of naturalistic idealism in Chinese art. Mountains were considered as revelations of Cosmic Truth, and artists had a strong desire to depict mountains in their 'real' forms, in their ideal forms, which were monumental, powerful and harmonious.
